England's players must open their eyes to Roy Hodgson, a man who is guided by a 'light that shines within'

Football’s growing up. English football’s going to college. The appointment of
Roy Hodgson as England manager, and the imminent opening of the Football
Association’s university of coaching at St George’s Park, signals a desire
for a more thoughtful approach to the game.

For what we are about to receive: Make our players truly thankfulPhoto: ACTION IMAGES

English football has always suffered from an anti-intellectual streak, from Pat Nevin’s Guardian-reading raising eyebrows and laughs in the Chelsea dressing room to one past England player expressing jealousy of his sister for having two brothers while he had only one.

Even now, even after the missionary work by some foreign players, even after the academy system has sought to instil more thought, there remains a slow-witted element to some English players. Few go abroad, partly because the money is good in England and partly through innate insularity.

The behaviour levels of some young players indicate they never learn. Instinct, some of it wild, still holds a place in football.

English football needs to open its eyes and open its books. Debates in English football often centre around personality rather than policy, stars not strategy.

Burton will help English football grow up. When the players are based there, rather than the usual hotel (although they will use the Grove the night before England games) they should be encouraged to visit the library and expand their horizons.

There will be coaches all around this base for the National Football Centre, some teaching, most learning.

Hodgson embodies this shift in English thinking, a desire on the FA’s part to push for an age of enlightenment.

Currently scrutinised overly harshly, Hodgson’s career should be celebrated, particularly the way he went abroad aged 28 to accelerate his coaching education, beginning with Halmstads.

Eventually returning to the country he loves, Hodgson often talks of his hope that “the coaching set-up in the country would regain the status it had when I was young”.

He recalls his admiration for “world-class coaches” such as Don Howe, Dave Sexton, Terry Venables and the late, great Sir Bobby Robson.

He wants English coaching to be respected again, an ambition he could help fulfil at Burton but mainly by bringing some shape and confidence to England’s movement.

He deserves a chance. At 64, Hodgson is a well-travelled, rounded person, far more humorous than perceived. His image as a browbeaten interviewee, finding agendas in often simple questions stems from a troubled six months at Anfield. #

Hodgson is not into mind games, saying things for effect. He can turn suspicious quickly. If he detects an air of trust, he is terrific, expansive company.

Bereft of ego, Hodgson also listens. During a dinner last year in London to celebrate the football writing career of Brian Glanville, Hodgson talked at depth about the issues confronting the game but he also listened to the views of the six journalists drawn from England, Scotland, France, Germany and Italy around the table. So multilingual, Hodgson could have conversed in the native tongues.

He watches foreign films, not requiring subtitles. He reads extensively from Philip Roth to John Updike, Milan Kundera to JP Donleavy. Puccini’s operas are also a favourite.

His predecessor, Fabio Capello, similarly loved his arts, collecting paintings, but the Italian’s distance from the England players was an issue Hodgson must be aware of. The chemistry must be right.

Can he deal with the England stars? That has always been the question haunting Hodgson, slightly unfairly. In 1995, I visited him at , Inter Milan’s training camp, where he was looking to bring the best out of a distracted Paul Ince. The general consensus was that the pair were too contrasting, the Guv’nor and the professor.

Ince was also struggling to settle, partly because his wife was homesick. He even used to drive across the border to a local McDonald’s and bring back some familiar cooking.

Hodgson, cleverly, calmed Ince down, massaged his ego, made him perform for the team. Ince played well before heading back to Blighty and Liverpool in 1997.

Liverpool’s current midfield king, Steven Gerrard, voiced his respect for Hodgson the man during the manager’s six-month stay, although some of the players had issues with the complexity of his training sessions at Melwood.

Even though his drills are famously long, infamously some would suggest, the more open-minded players know that they will be fashioned into a well-organised unit by Hodgson.

Switzerland certainly were when he guided them to the last 16 at the World Cup in the United States.

I was in Detroit on June 18 1994, in such obscenely hot conditions that a puddle of sweat spread across the press-box floor (nothing to do with me), and it was only Switzerland’s tactical discipline that allowed them to live with an energetic American side in a 1-1 draw in sweltering conditions. Those that listen to Hodgson tend to prosper.

During his successful time at Fulham, Hodgson developed what he called a “thinking group of players”, including Danny Murphy, Mark Schwarzer, Aaron Hughes, Brede Hangeland and Damien Duff, who discussed tactics with him.

He enjoys the company and input of senior players, loathing those he dismisses as “robots’’, who rely solely on instinct and do not enhance their craft.

Scepticism will still greet Hodgson on his first day with the England players. They have seen the occasionally long-winded press conferences, heard the tales about his day-nighter training sessions.

England’s players need to change their image of Hodgson.

As befits somebody who has lived in many countries, there is an extensive hinterland to Hodgson’s character. He is not dour or placid.

He gets emotional in the technical area, occasionally kicking out at water bottles and often missing. A fire burns within. “Hunger has to be innate,’’ he told me after that Glanville dinner.

“How come at 80 Brian Glanville is a damned sight more enthusiastic than some journalists just starting off? It’s the light that shines within. Nothing has ever killed that light for me.”

It is why he is friends with Sir Alex Ferguson, sharing an enduring passion for the game. That relationship may help in the usual club-versus-country disputes that can bedevil England’s preparations.

Hodgson gets on with many managers. Even Harry Redknapp, who is certainly owed an explanation by the FA, emphasised yesterday that he held no grudges.

The FA now has to be strong. Regardless of what happens at the Euros, the FA must ride the storms, resisting the inevitable calls that will roll out for Hodgson’s dismissal if England struggle.